BRIEFING
Steve Jones, Managing Director
Construction, Economic and Procurement Update SPRING 2018
Market Reflections
Amid all the uncertainty, doom and gloom, leavers, remainers, predictions of
Armageddon etc. etc. (yes I know, its all so boring) I stand alone in a sea of tranquillity.
My day-to-day problems are far more mundane, the biggest of which at the moment
seems to be recruitment of quality staff.
Despite all of the above, we are doing well and continuing to grow. Word is out,
therefore, that we are recruiting, so every day I get 2 or 3 unsolicited expert callers,
trying to sell me potential recruits who are unsuited to the positions we are trying to
fill.
Notwithstanding, we soldier on and
occasionally a real gem will turn up
and, if we are lucky, join the good ship
MDA.........and so the ship continues to
sail quietly on, charting a course through
the gently choppy waters.
My biggest worry is that if we all continue
to ‘talk it down’ then it will surely become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can look at
statistics (output, input, interest rates, cricket scores etc.) all you want, but often it is
the sentiment on the ground that counts. As touched on earlier, we are very busy in
a number of sectors, residential, hotels, care homes, retirement homes and student
accommodation, all of which are growing and prospects are buoyant, at least for us
anyway.
Things are patchy I admit, but there is a lot to be positive about. The stockmarket
continues to ride high, interest rates are still exceptionally low, and demand for many
key sectors of the industry is still very high.
Talking of positivity, I haven’t mentioned the stable UK Government, strength of the
Euro or the strong leadership coming out of the US at the moment!
I haven’t even mentioned the dreaded “B” word once!
As an ex-MDA Chairman once said to me, “if you can’t have a laugh, there is no point in
doing the job.”
@MDAtoday
KEY MDA
FACTS:
Wholly owned
No external
shareholders
Increase in turnover
and profit
13
new joiners
35%
female
workforce
10
graduates
enrolled on their
APC
£250m
largest scheme
7
award winning
projects
1
new business
launched - MDA ·
LC Mann Ltd
